100 Creatives: Van G. Garrett

What He Does: Internationally acclaimed author and artist Van G. Garrett, also known as Fui Koshi -- writer, painter, photographer, musician -- explores and illuminates the world around him, reflecting clarity through simplicity in the power of his words, rhythms and images.

His poetry has been published in journals and anthologies in the United States, Africa, Switzerland, Turkey and London. His photography, videos and paintings have appeared everywhere from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston to the International Film Channel, and he has received many awards and fellowships including a BID Fellowship in Italy and a Dr. Kwame Nkrumah International Study Scholarship in Ghana.

Garrett has published two collections of poetry: Songs in Blue Negritude, a reflective collection addressing many social issues, but its primary, he says, is music. His newest work is a chapbook, ZURI: Selected Love Songs, a sampling of poems that chronicles his travels around the world and focuses on love in unexpected places, he says -- for a kid and his grandparents, for an inanimate object, for a country -- and musicality.

At the heart of his work, Garrett says, the key to his artistry is sincerity.

"I'm just a storyteller," Garrett says. "And I want the reader to appreciate the sincerity in which I'm writing...to understand that what I'm writing is not some flowery poetry, some poetry to make you feel good, or some snap your finger type poetry...the reader can take away whatever meaning they get..but I'd rather have a room of five people that get it than 500 people that don't care, that just want to be entertained...it's more than just all the smoke and mirrors...what's the message, and is it sincere?"

"It's a personal statement first before it's something public," he says. "Any time I create art, I put myself out there, and I think that's true to all my art forms. I don't mind getting outside the lines...that's the way I see the world...I don't try to hide behind language, or my art, it is what it is...I don't like to use punctuation...you can still say very interesting, intelligent things about society, but you don't always have to subscribe to what's considered correct."

Why He Likes It: "One, it's therapeutic...it's a release, being able to create art, to write, to create music -- it's a freeing experience," he says. "Also, knowing that there are like-minded people in the world that also appreciate it, that can express what they're trying to say...to fellowship and network with people who like what you appreciate and enjoy is always a good thing because you're not living in a vacuum...I'm just fortunate that I have some people that appreciate my art."

His travels across the world have shaded his writing, and he enjoys bringing together those conversations, dynamics and relationships to give others a chance to live those experiences through his art.

Tuscan Hills, Van G. Garrett

there is a deep vibration inside an opened hill in tuscany full-bodied sounds like vino begging to be lip-pressed

held around the waist with sensibilities only a writer can supply

an unfathomable beauty upon a bosom scented with lavender proudly wearing the light of day like a sundress of purple splendor

a suppleness of flesh silhouetted at night as soft-blown winds swirl over the neck and spine

of a honey-hued torso breathtaking in silence fragrant in every moment--outstretched like fingers across a body

sweetened by dew in the mornings as praises are sung like lullabies into air echoing notes like watermarks

"John Donne said, 'No man is an island entire of itself,' and I understand that, it's not just me in the world, and the things that you can take from other people, other cultures, it's just awesome."

In Africa, he says, even though there were people that looked like him, their experiences were completely different from his own, and in Italy, there were people who looked nothing like him, but welcomed him into their homes.

"We're sitting down and eating and having conversations, listening to the same music, or watching a video in a different language...laughing at the same time...I get a chance to meet people that I would not have ever met, and we're able to have stories and to laugh about similar things, and be more serious about some things...just being able to look at life in a different way, and I'm better by that whole experience... a more informed individual, a stronger person, a more appreciative person, and not just a better artist, but a better human being."

In traveling to these places, he says, and to places that others say to avoid, those they would like to forget, brings awareness, and opens your eyes to unseen beauty and perspectives in life.

If Not This, Then What: "Maybe something with animals...probably primates, because I like language, or sociology, because I like being around people...but you're still interacting with people, so to me, that's still an art form...I also consider myself a sociologist, because when I'm writing, that's how I kind of view my artistic statement... but, no, I couldn't see myself without art -- I see the art in everything."

What's Next: Awarded a grant with the assistance of Writers in the Schools, Garrett will be traveling to Latvia in September where he will be performing, as well as lecturing at a university and conducting workshops in creative writing, poetry and performance arts. In the fall of this year, he will be debuting as a fiction writer with the book The Unbuckling: The Days of Stacy Adams, under the pen name Gee Van Garrett.

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